Too Late for Me to Learn Foreign Languages?

Question

I'm 17, and I really want to learn Spanish, French, and maybe even Mandarin (of course, not within a short time frame!). I have taken two years of Spanish in high school, but upper division Spanish had been cancelled by the time I could have taken it. Admittedly, it was not my best subject, as idioms and sentence structure (like "lo que") had me baffled. I can understand written Spanish fairly decently, with the exception of knowing what a few words translate to.

But I keep hearing that after a young age (way before age 17), the brain is less capable of really learning foreign languages.

I want to learn out of necessity, and out of a desire to communicate with more people around the world, but is it too late to re-learn and expand my knowledge of Spanish (and learn the other mentioned languages)?

Answer 1

I don't think it is ever too late if you really want to learn. Certain languages are easier to learn knowing others. For example, I speak Spanish and have taken French classes. Now I am learning Italian. It has lots of similarities to both, so it is fairly easy. However, I am also learning Korean for work. That is a lot harder, but I need to learn it for my job.

Good luck, buena suerte, et bonne chance!

Answer 2

I learned some Italian to go on a holiday when I was about 28, before travelling by train to a region where I couldn't expect the locals to speak English. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to pick up - if you have a knack for languages (and it sounds like you do), you will find it quite easy to learn new languages. A friend of mine, not too quick at languages, recently started to learn Italian (at age 34) and is finding it quite easy. I learned to speak Russian when I was about 16 and now have a degree in it. Yes, it's a hard language, but once you get past the alphabet it becomes much easier. The basics are easy enough - hello, yes, no, please, thanks and so on will see you through most situations, athough the grammar is a pain. Russian is an Indo-European language, so it shares its basic roots with English, Spanish, French, German and so on. If you want to learn Russian, I would advise you to learn the alphabet first (you can pick up loads of books to show you how to do this) then find a class to teach you some more. You can save a lot of time (and money) by learning the alphabet on your own. Practice saying out loud the names of Metro stations to see how they sound (see link below). Be prepared that your accent won't be very special and you'll have to spell out the words out loud most of the time, but an added advantage is that you can write secret notes, passwords etc, for yourself in Russian and nobody will be able to read them! :-)

Answer 3

it is never to late. especially if you already studies spanish (Romance language). That should help with learning French. However Mandarin is obviously different and will take longer. I was 27 when I learned Russian in 48 week (read,write, listen and translate, and speak.) at a professional level while I was in the military, so it is not too late but will take some dedication for the chinese languages

Answer 4

It does seem as if most people learn languages in some very automatic way when very young (like below 10 or 15, depending perhaps in part on the individual), and then after that it becomes a different sort of learning, but even this is not entirely clear. Anyway most people study languages in college and later, and do extremely well, though rarely can anyone become completely fluent like a native after that young age. But one can sitll become very very fluent.

Answer 5

Well I 'm 13 and I'm starting to learn Spanish, French and Gaeilge(Irish) and I'll be honest after 9 years of learning Gaeilge in school I still think of myself as a beginner. So I'm sure you can learn three languages no matter what age you, what really matters is if you want to! Remeber to study hard every day as really that is the only way to learn anything.

Answer 6

Of course you can learn languages! I never started learning Spanish until I was in my 20s, and I am a very proficient speaker of Spanish. I was in the Czech Republic this last summer, and some of the best learners of English I ever heard were women in their 80s. If you want to learn, learn and don't worry about your age. Happy language learning!

Answer 7

no i wouldnt say its too late. in the army of my country soldiers have to study at least one languages and pass a language exam...if they r under 40. above 40 they do not have to study any languages. so i would say rather 40 is the limit, but it is true that the younger u r the easier it is to study languages. im 16 and i study three languages, developing very well, so dont give up. one of the most amazing things in the world is if u can speak a foreign language. there is a saying: u r worth as many people as many languages u know ;-)

Answer 8

bloody hell! You're 17 not 90! (There was a guy in a German class I was in who was 80.)

After age 7 or so, you might be too old to "acquire" a language, in the sense of picking it up just by listening to it, not thinking about it. After 12 or so, you might be too old to ever speak it without a foreign accent. But you're certainly not too old to "learn" it.

Answer 9

no! my uncle who is like 40 just learned italian. As long as you seriously apply yourself you can do it. Just make a good combination of reading, writing, listening, and speaking the language you are trying to learn. Practice and repetition of the language is the best way to learn it!

Answer 10

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